Web Site Design Survey

San Mateo Union High School District
Website: www.smuhsd.org
Website Design: Planning Survey

In order to better understand the users for the district’s website, it is important that the content experts from the respective areas/departments share their knowledge and expertise before beginning the design process. Since there is no task that is too small, individuals are encouraged to provide feedback. In addition, it is encouraged that departments can discuss with each other their ideas and their insights based on their interaction with the people that they come into contact with in their department.

The knowledge and the expertise that the participants from the district departments are valuable in contributing to provide the information needed to make important decisions to design the website based on:

• Who are the intended users to use the website?


• What type of information do they need?


• What type of tasks do the users need to accomplish?

Through the process of understanding who the users are and their intentions or assumptions there can then be created considerations for the following:

How to best design the layout and the navigation to guide and to assist the user through the website to areas that pertain to them.

What is the best way to create a clear context for the content including the relationship between the information/resources and the department/school site.

How to provide the appropriate means for a user to accomplish a task through the website and reasonable alternatives based on who the users are.

Included is the survey that can be downloaded, printed out and returned as a hardcopy. Thank you for your participation!

Questions or concerns?


Please contact Lina Lin,

Document Production & Graphic Design Specialist

Print Shop/Word Processing D.O.

E-mail: llin@smuhsd.org

Phone ext: 2231

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San Mateo Union High School District
Website: www.smuhsd.org
Website Design: Planning Survey

The Web Site look and feel that is presented can be important part in the impression that is given. Similar to when someone looks for a home, the surroundings can cause a person to make assumptions about the area or the neighborhood. In order to make the right impression, it is important to be aware of what the person is looking for.

Survey Questions: Purpose of the Website

1. In your view, how would the district like to be presented/perceived by the public -- including parents, students or community members? For example, is the district seen as professional or family-oriented; traditional or innovative; competitive or community-focused; and compassionate or objective/fair-minded?


2. Describe the type of image that is desired to be presented to the public in terms of representing your department. For example, is it more important for your department to be viewed as efficient or being accommodating?


3. What kinds of needs or requirements are there for of the department that needs a web presence? For the people who use the website?

Please attach additional pages or samples if necessary.

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San Mateo Union High School District
Website: www.smuhsd.org
Website Design: Planning Survey

Describe a task, a process or a procedure that may commonly take place within your department/area. How is this task, process or procedure normally accomplished? For example, what kind of information do people request from your department or area. Who are the people that request this information?


After you describe the task, please respond to the following questions as completely as possible. If there is more than one task, process or procedure, please copy and use the survey below.

Survey Questions: Website Users

1. Describe the task, the process or procedure.


2. Describe the person requesting the information.


3. What are the common questions, needs or concerns does the person requesting the information have?


4. What are the common documents, forms or resources that are requested and are these currently available on the website


5. How can the person find support for the documents or resources within your department? Who do they contact and by what means? If the contact person’s name, phone number and e-mail were provided, who would the appropriate person(s) be.

Please attach additional pages or samples if necessary.

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Phase 1: Usability Study

Defining the Users
In order to make the best decisions on the design choices for the website, it is important to understand who the users are going to be and what they intend to do once they are at the website.

One of the ways that we can approach this is through a the use of personas. What is the age group of the users and how does that affect the choices that are made in terms of font size and weight, colors used and spacing in the page layout?

Elderly Users
For older readers, there are some specific considerations.
According to one article, there are some key points for readers that are age 65 and above.
(Text Design for Elderly Eyes, http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/articles/TDelderly/)

Here are some of the considerations:

• Larger size fonts between 12 and 14 pt are easier to read
• Spacing and indents increase readability
• Lines that are between 7-8 words are ideal

It's possible, of course, that these findings could apply to the average reader, as well.

Considerations for users with disabilities
For accessibility purposes, some of the guidelines include:

• All the text on the page need to be readable in a logical order without the layout and formatting.
• In the case of forms, the tab order needs to match the labels of the form item apart from the layout.
• Media including video, photos and sound need to have an accompanying alternative. This could be a text-based description or possibly a transcript or captioning.

(Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html)


Youth Culture
The growing use of technology everyday life is an important aspect in reaching this group. The range of devices where e-mail and websites can be accessed include cell phones (mobile devices) and laptops.

Visuals including Icons and graphics that communicate provide the immediacy that this group is accustomed to.
In addition, the convergence of the devices including computers, mobile devices and television make it important to consider the growing and changing ways that these users interact with and use information.

For example, the course management Blackboard that is often used for students to access their courses online, provides students the opportunity to be in contact with classmates using Facebook to form study groups or to discuss assignments using their mobile devices or on their computers.

(Classmates Network, http://www.blackboardsync.com)

Overview

Welcome to the blog site for the San Mateo Union High School District hosted by yours truly.

The purpose of this site is to provide a place for better collaboration on the smuhsd.org.

What you can do on this site:

1. Review web development issues.
2. Download and/or view any pertinent documents.
3. Have coffee (your own, of course) and make friends with others involved.

Please note that I will do my best to maintain this site but may be limited during development.

Thanks for stopping by!



Lina Lin
Document Production &
Graphic Design Specialist
llin@smuhsd.org